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Originally Posted by con20or
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They were, really. They had many crew ashore, and were only ready for action on the seaward side, so the RN ships that went inshore of them had some time of unfettered shooting.
As an aside, I think generalities about position, or French vs Rn tactics and methods are not super useful for teasing out the realities of naval warfare in the age of sail. The French taking the lee, for example. They trained for more accurate gunnery than the RN... before many of their royalist officers lost their heads, or were otherwise drummed out of service. I think they tended to keep their doctrines in revolutionary/napoleonic france in spite of no longer having the skilled men widely available to use that doctrine well. Nelson, and most others in the RN, knew that their standards of gunnery were poor (from the standpoint of laying guns), and speed, combined with placing your ship where you could not miss (alongside the enemy) meant more shot delivered to the target. Making a virtue of necessity, lemonade out of lemons... however you'd like to think about it.
A notable exception that leaps to mind is
Shannon's captain, Philip Broke, who trained his gunners not just for rate of fire, but actually put sights on his guns and pushed
aiming.
Obviously realistic AI will use the appropriate doctrines of the appropriate navies, regardless of the underlying rationale for those doctrines. Still, having them overlap with different crew qualities, or having some AI behave differently would be great.
Poor gunner skill + French doctrine = meh results (like most French/RN engagements turned out).
Good gunner skill + French doctrine = unmanageable RN ships and French initiative (to leave and do something else if that is their actual mission)
The RN doctrine results in more shots hitting regardless of crew quality since they endeavor to place themselves where missing is not physically possible. They have to get to that range, however. The odd RN ship might also have excellent gunners... in fleet actions doesn't matter much.
I have to say, the most interesting focus for an age of sail game is actually small actions, not fleet actions. My dream game would be command of a single, small vessel (even a sloop of war) that is incredibly detailed/accurate. Then the maneuver aspect is far more important (sort of analogous to what we do in subsims).